Give Now  »

wfiu logo
WFIU Public Radio

wtiu logo
WTIU Public Television

Choose which station to support!

Indiana Public Media | WFIU - NPR | WTIU - PBS

Battle Wages On In Massachusetts Cage-Free Match

Rivals are squaring off over a ballot initiative in Massachusetts that would ban the sale of eggs and meat from hens, breeding pigs and veal calves raised in close confinement.

The "cage-free" measure is slated to come up for a vote in November 2016. It would affect farms in Massachusetts and in states where eggs and meat are produced for the Massachusetts market.

The egg industry fiercely opposed a similar measure that passed in California in 2008.

The vanguard of the industry side, the United Egg Producers (UEP), told The Boston Globe that a coalition of groups plans to commission polls and an economic impact study.

In an earlier interview, the group's president chief executive, Chad Gregory, told Politico that opponents were running out of options. "The activists are ripping apart conventional cages, and we have no middle ground to go to," Gregory told Politico.

But in the Globe story, he took issue with Politico's reporting, which said UEP was "conceding the fight" over the ballot initiative.

He told the Globe that UEP was "not just going to allow the Humane Society of the United States to try to pass this referendum without any opposition at all."

The fight in Massachusetts comes as McDonald's pushes for cage-free egg suppliers. The company, which uses about 4 percent of all the eggs produced in the United States, announced in September that it would phase out the use of eggs from hens housed in cages over the next decade.

Read More:



  • Egg Industry To Fight Ballot Initiative (Boston Globe)
  • Egg Industry Yielding In Cage-Free Fight (Politico)
  • McDonald's Plans AÂ Shift to Eggs From Only Cage-Free Hens (New York Times)


Support For Indiana Public Media Comes From

About Earth Eats

Harvest Public Media